Editorial: Lakeland, vets will benefit from new VA clinic

Military veterans across Polk County got welcome news earlier this week when Congress approved funding for a handful of new medical clinics in Florida for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

On that list was $10.8 million for a new outpatient clinic in Lakeland, according to Sen. Bill Nelson’s office. President Donald Trump still must sign the measure appropriating the money for the facilities. We encourage the president to do so, although we see no reason why he won’t, given his support for our military and our veterans.

We applaud Congress for approving this project. In a statement, Nelson, a Democrat, said it well by noting, “We have a duty to care for the brave men and women who have served in our nation’s military. Getting these seven new VA clinics opened here in Florida will make it easier for some of our veterans to access the care that they need.”

Facilitating veterans’ access to health care is critical, whether that is for aging veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam (whose oldest cohorts are now turning 70), or younger veterans of the war against terror who have lost limbs or who struggle with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or contemplation of suicide.

VA hospitals located in both Tampa and Orlando are not that far away. But an expansive full-service clinic in Lakeland would allow Polk veterans, and perhaps some from neighboring counties, to receive care closer to home, while not clogging the ranks of patients in those other facilities.

And the new Lakeland clinic should be something special.

As The Ledger reported on Thursday, the proposed 93,000-square-foot clinic will be nearly five times the size of the current one on South Pipkin Road. In addition to boosting its primary-care services, the new clinic will also feature radiology, audiology and eye care, as well as expanded mental health services and a physical therapy department.

And VA data indicate an expansion is necessary. Lakeland’s current 20,000-square-foot facility served 10,479 unique patients in 2015 and 11,421 in 2016. Now, with still two months left in the current fiscal year, the patient load has already surpassed 11,000, VA officials told The Ledger. Moreover, VA statistics also show that between 2010 and 2014 the clinic's total number of outpatient visits — which include some veterans visiting the clinic more than once a year — jumped from 40,391 to 68,881, a 70 percent spike.

Thus, we join Gary Clark, chairman of the Polk County Veterans Council and a retired Air Force colonel, in praising officials at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, which oversees the Lakeland community clinic. They recognized our area needed a bigger, more comprehensive facility, and lobbied the agency’s headquarters to include it among the 28 facilities nationwide that the VA will fund in the coming fiscal year.

It is unclear when construction of the new facility will begin, or where it will be located. Joe Battle, director of the Haley hospital in Tampa, will conduct a town hall meeting at City Hall on Aug. 30 to discuss those details. We look forward to hearing his presentation.

But regardless of where it ends up or when it opens, the important thing is that Lakeland made the VA’s cut to provide expanded medical services to those who have served our nation.